At the Olympic Games in Los Angeles in 1984, the rower Andy Holmes, who has died of leptospirosis (also known as Weil's disease) aged 51, was part of the coxed four whose victory redefined British rowing. Holmes went on to become Steve Redgrave's partner in the pair, and together they won gold and bronze medals – in the coxless and coxed pairs respectively – at the Seoul Olympics four years later.

Holmes was born in Hillingdon, west London. His interest in rowing was ignited at the age of 12 at Latymer upper school in Hammersmith, where he also played rugby with a young Hugh Grant. Holmes was coached in rowing by Jim Clark, who had won a silver medal as part of the British eight at the Montreal Olympics in 1976.

When he left school, Holmes joined the Leander club at Henley. His first victory at the royal regatta came in 1978 in the Thames Challenge cup. He competed in his first world championships two years later with a coxed four who led the 2km race for more than 1,200m but then failed to win a medal.

The key year in Holmes's career was 1984. British rowing had not enjoyed an Olympic victory since 1948, when Jack Wilson and Ran Laurie had won the coxless pairs, and Richard Burnell and Bert Bushnell had won the double sculls.

The coxed four that was assembled for the 1984 Games was a formidable crew, with Redgrave at stroke, Holmes, Richard Budgett, Martin Cross and the cox Adrian Ellison. The Eastern bloc boycott meant that East Germany, the Brits' strongest rivals, did not compete that year, but the crew had already proven that they could beat the East German boat at the Lucerne Regatta.

At Lake Casitas in California, the British crew confirmed their standing with Olympic victory over the Americans. "We hadn't raced against them before," said Holmes in an interview with the Observer in 2006, "but we figured that if we stayed in touch with them early on, we would come through in the second half of the race – which we did." Holmes made the headlines that day because he had funded his Olympic effort by working as a hod carrier.

His first international partnership with Redgrave in the coxless pairs came at the 1986 Commonwealth Games, which they won. The same summer they won the world title in the coxed pairs at Nottingham, with Pat Sweeney, and in 1987 they took another world title in the coxless pairs at Copenhagen.

In the 1988 Olympics at Seoul, Holmes and Redgrave took gold in the coxless pairs and, with Sweeney, bronze in the coxed pairs. The qualifying was daunting enough, with the semi-finals for the two events held within 50 minutes of each other, but they won both of those races. In the final for the coxless pairs, on the Han River course, Holmes and Redgrave led from start to finish, defeating the Romanians Dragos Neagu and Danut Dobre by more than a second. But a little less than 24 hours later, though they were confident of victory, the double eluded them when they finished third in the coxed pairs. It was, nevertheless, an astonishing achievement and should logically have set the seal on their relationship.

However, the coxed pairs final was the last race that Holmes and Redgrave rowed together. They were never really close friends. The partnership had been built on their differences; it was an uneasy alliance. Redgrave decided to seek out a new partner – initially Simon Berrisford, then Matthew Pinsent. "When we subsequently chose to go our separate ways, the press tried to make out that there had been a clash of personalities," said Holmes. "But that simply wasn't the case. In truth, Steve and I were different people with different lives and we no longer speak."

Holmes's rowing career was now on hold. He tried other options, even attempting to contact the young Pinsent to see if he was interested, but the discussion never took place. He considered becoming a sculler (much as Redgrave had once desired) and even bought a house at Banyoles in Spain, where the 1992 Olympics were to be held, but without a sponsor the plan was curtailed and he was soon lost to rowing. The trophies and medals were put in the attic. "There was nothing, nothing in the house that would suggest that I had anything to do with rowing," he later told Cross.

Holmes set up a furniture removal company and found other diversions, including playing as a drummer in an occasionally convened rock band. He was only lured back into rowing a few years ago when he became director of rowing at Furnival sculling club in Hammersmith and at the Langley academy in Berkshire.

He is survived by four children, Aimée, Camilla, Louis and Francesca, by his first marriage, to Pamela, and by his second wife, Gabrielle, and their month-old daughter, Parker.

• Andrew Jeremy Holmes, rower, born 15 October 1959; died 24 October 2010